TRENTON, N.J. — The Christie administration withheld millions of dollars in Superstorm Sandy recovery grants from a New Jersey city because its mayor refused to sign off on a politically connected commercial development, the mayor said Saturday.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer alleged that Gov. Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor and a top community development official told her recovery funds would flow to her city if she allowed the project to move forward.

Zimmer said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno pulled her aside at an event in May and told her Sandy aid was tied to the project — a proposal from the New York City-based Rockefeller Group aimed at prime real estate in the densely populated city across the river from New York City.

“I was directly told the by the lieutenant governor — she made it very clear — that the Rockefeller project needed to move forward or they wouldn’t be able to help me,” Zimmer told The Associated Press.

“There is no way I could ethically do what the governor, through the lieutenant governor, is asking me to do,” she said.

Christie’s office denied Zimmer’s claims, calling her statements politically motivated. Spokesman Colin Reed said the administration has been helping Hoboken secure assistance since Sandy struck.” Christie himself was raising money Saturday for fellow Republicans in Florida. The fundraisers were closed to reporters.

A state web site that tracks the distribution of Sandy aid shows that Hoboken received a $200,000 post-storm planning grant in October out of a $1.8 billion pot of money controlled by the state. Hoboken also received a $142,000 state energy resilience grant.

Besides state money, Hoboken has received $70 million in recovery funds distributed by the federal government, according to the Christie administration. Zimmer said she has applied for $100 million to implement a comprehensive plan to help insulate her city from future floods.

Christie is already embroiled in another scandal involving traffic jams apparently manufactured to settle a political score. At a recent news conference to discuss the lane closures on the approach to the George Washington Bridge, Christie brushed aside questions about his aggressive governing style. “I am who I am,” said Christie, “I am not a bully.”

But Zimmer said Guadagno and Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable, a member of Christie’s cabinet, both delivered messages about Sandy aid in no uncertain terms.

Zimmer, who first spoke with MSNBC on Saturday, told the cable network that at another event in May Constable said “the money would start flowing to you” if she backed the project.

The Rockefeller Group did not immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press. In a statement to MSNBC, a spokesman said it had no knowledge of any information related to Zimmer’s claims.

Zimmer, a Democrat, said she is willing to take a lie detector test or testify under oath about the conversations.

Christie’s office called Zimmer’s claims a political move.

“Gov. Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get the help they need after Sandy,” Reed said. “It’s very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television.”

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